How climate change is affecting South Australia
According to the Australian Academy of Science, “Earth’s climate has changed over the past century. The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, sea levels have risen, and glaciers and ice sheets have decreased in size. The best available evidence indicates that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are the main cause. Continuing increases in greenhouse gases will produce further warming and other changes in Earth’s physical environment and ecosystems.”
In its findings, the world’s leading body for assessing climate change – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - reports that human influence on the climate system is clear. Information on the latest climate change science is available on the IPCC website. The Australian National University has developed four fact sheets that summarise the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report and the relevant findings for Australia.
Climate change will continue to affect our state and our community in a number of different ways.
While South Australia’s climate has always been highly variable, a warming trend has been observed since the 1970s. According to the latest data, Australian land areas have warmed approximately 1.5 degrees Celsius over the past century. Rainfall has also declined over most of the state since the 1970s, particularly for autumn and spring rainfall over the agricultural regions.
Find out more about the projected changes in rainfall and temperature in South Australia.
The new Guide to Climate Projections for Risk Assessment and Planning in SA 2022 in South Australia provides a summary of the changes in climate that are projected to occur in South Australia over the coming 80 years. The Guide draws on information from a range of sources, primarily NARCliM, the CSIRO, Bureau of Meteorology, IPCC and the Goyder Institute for Water Research.
Find out more about these New climate change projections for South Australia.
